3 Answers
3

Turns out that I had to go into the Surface Area Configuration and add myself as an Administrator. I am not really sure why this was the case, but it seems to have solved my problem. I could then connect using my computer name.

This worked for me too. Strangely, I was already a member of the local Windows 'Administrator' group and I was already able to connect remotely using SSMS. The two servers where I've observed this issue are both running Windows Server 2008. I've never observed this problem before with SQL Server 2005 on servers running Windows Server 2003.
– Kenny EvittAug 18 '11 at 20:41

This took me hours to figure out, as someone who's not familiar with SQL Server databases. MS could've done a better job documenting this for beginners.
– Martijn HeemelsNov 22 '12 at 11:24

I tried it and got the same exact error message. I also tried "localhost", my computer name, 127.0.0.1
– DerekNov 18 '10 at 18:17

1

hmm take a look at the windows event logs under application to see if anything stands out, also look into the sql logs located in \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.n\MSSQL\LOG\ERRORLOG , in addition if this is a named instance your connection might need to be LOCALHOST\SQLNAMED (replace SQLNAMED with actual instance name)
– Nick O'NeilNov 18 '10 at 18:26

Yeah, I had tried the named instance thinking that might be it but it didnt work. See my answer...finally figured it out
– DerekNov 18 '10 at 20:05